Elevate!

Elevate!
Last month, my early learning team (pre-school, TK, kindergarten) and I attended a conference together in La Jolla.  The conference was put on by a kindergarten blogger I have followed for  the past few years, Mr. Greg at The Kindergarten Smorgasboard.  He has become a big influence on my teaching via his blog, facebook posts, and YouTube channel. I was very excited for him to come to Southern California (he's from Tennessee) to share his knowledge and excitement for teaching all  things kindergarten so I got my team to come with me! If you are an early learning  teacher, I highly recommend this conference.  We all left very inspired and energized!

The conference costs money, of course, so we used district resources available to teachers to get it paid for.  I used part of my Spotlight stipend for professional development while my colleagues used the Teacher Initiated Fund (TIF) to cover their costs.  We used those monies for the conference cost itself plus a hotel room for one or two nights.  Since the conference was on a Saturday, we did not have to worry about substitute costs.

We all applied  for these funds early in August. First, we had to fill out a "Request to Attend" form for our site administration to approve. You can get that form here.  Once our site administration approved us, we sent it in to district administration (currently Veronica Bucheli) for review and approval.

The myomta.org  website has all of the  information you need in order to apply for these funds  The key is to apply early in the school year because the  funds can go quickly.  Each year the maximum amount per teacher can change, but this year  the maximum amount was $800.  That can cover most expenses incurred, such as sub pay,  hotel costs, parking,  mileage, and meals.

I encourage every teacher to take advantage of this  opportunity for professional  growth.  If you have any questions about the process,  please contact Tisha Curry at tisha.curry@omsd.net.

Happy Teaching (and Learning)!

Erin Grebel